"Planet Wild" is a 3D exploration and interaction game with an emphasis on going outside and journaling. In this experience, players can travel through three different regions inspired by the Netherlands and search for animals. After finding them, they proceed to draw the animal in their journal, personalizing their journaling experience in the process, and even allowing them to download their image for printing.
This project was my final project for year one at university, combining all knowledge and skills required up to that point. For this project, there were five members on the team. I had the following roles:
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A main mechanic for Planet Wild is the ability to draw and journal the animals you saw. After journaling, you can save them as pictures ready to be printed in A4.
For this mechanic, I used the LineRenderer component in Unity to calculate points followed by the cursor that would then render them in whatever material specified. Because of the versatility of a LineRenderer, I could modify size and materials via simple parameter methods.
The user interface saw many changes throughout the development of this game. Obviously starting off simple, the UI evolved with one goal in mind: Keep it simple for the children. For that, removing all text was a necessity, opting in to replace it with graphics that children could understand. What the final product ended up being was a primarily diegetic UI to easily contextualize what is presented.
This portion of the project was super exciting for me to tackle. With each iteration, I found myself tackling a new problem: How can I render X or Y in the UI? How can I save the drawings? How can I add options? These questions were common throughout the process, and with smart problem-solving, they were tackle efficiently.
"Planet Wild" wouldn't be what it is today without Fishy Business, the team I led for the project. It was composed of four amazing people and myself: Natasza Dejczer, Jemy Mantouw, Peter Niewold, and Stan Van Daalen. While I would say I did lead the team in direction and accountability, these people put the work in where it was needed, and then some!
One huge factor to our success came from how we implemented the SCRUM framework. As the SCRUM master, I took full advantage for what I had learnt in university already: Standups, SCRUM boards, and burndown charts were prominent elements of the team. This definitely help keep the team more accountable and reflective over each sprint we did.
For this project, I took the SCRUM framework a bit more leniently. For example, rather than have a daily standup, I opted in for a casual standup once or twice a week - usually during our dedicated work sessions. After all, we're students, and students don't work everyday.
Our SCRUM platform of choice was Trello, and thankfully, there was a dedicated tool for burndown chart management. All I had to do was to create lists, create tasks and value them through points (equivalent to importance/time), and then manage away. Our burndown journey per sprint is rocky, as expected by students, but nonetheless, we accomplished what we set out to do by the end of the final sprint.
